Wild at Lightning preview

WILD (18-14-3) at LIGHTNING (25-7-2)
7 p.m. ET, SUN, FS-N, NHL.TV

The Lightning, who have the best record in the NHL, opened a four-game homestand with a 4-3 shootout victory against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday. Tampa Bay has won six straight at home and 15 of their past 20 games overall.
Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov entered Saturday leading the NHL with 50 points (23 goals, 27 assists), and linemate Steven Stamkos was tied with John Tavares of the New York Islanders for second with 45 (13 goals, 32 assists). Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy led the NHL with 22 wins and was third in goals-against-average (2.20) and save percentage (.931).
Minnesota is 1-3-0 in its past four games after going 6-1-0 of its previous seven. The Wild are playing the second of back-to-back games after losing 4-2 at the Florida Panthers on Friday.
Wild forward Nino Niederreiter will not play because of an ankle injury sustained in the first period Friday.

Players to watch

Forward Eric Staal leads the Wild with 70 points (33 goals, 37 assists) in 69 games against the Lightning since entering the NHL in 2003.
Kucherov has two points in each of his past four games.

They said it

"We made a couple of mistakes and [the Florida Panthers] put it in. It's very frustrating. How many times have I sat here and talked about us being tied in the last 10 minutes of the game and not getting anything on the road." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau
"[The Wild] are always known as a good defensive team. We can't expect a run and gun game. We have to expect a tight-checking, low-scoring game. They played last night but so we'll have to jump on them early." -- Lightning captain Steven Stamkos

Wild projected lineup

Jason Zucker -- Eric Staal -- Charlie Coyle
Joel Eriksson Ek -- Mikko Koivu -- Mikael Granlund
Marcus Foligno -- Daniel Winnik -- Chris Stewart
Zack Mitchell
-- Matt Cullen -- Tyler Ennis
Ryan Suter -- Matt Dumba
Jonas Brodin -- Jared Spurgeon
Mike Reilly -- Nate Prosser
Alex Stalock
Steve Michalek
Scratched:Gustav Olofsson
Injured:Devan Dubnyk (lower body), Zach Parise (back), Nino Niederreiter (ankle)

Lightning projected lineup

Vladislav Namestnikov -- Steven Stamkos - Nikita Kucherov
Ondrej Palat -- Brayden Point - Tyler Johnson
Alex Killorn - Yanni Gourde --
Cory Conacher
Chris Kunitz - Cedric Paquette -- JT Brown
Victor Hedman -- Jake Dotchin
Mikhail Sergachev -- Anton Stralman
Braydon Coburn -- Dan Girardi
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Peter Budaj
Scratched:Slater Koekkoek, Andrej Sustr
Injured:Ryan Callahan (upper body)

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Status report

The Wild did not hold a morning skate. Boudreau did not have an update on Niederreiter but said he doesn't think the injury is serious. … Stamkos participated in the morning skate after taking a maintenance day Friday.

Stat pack

Wild defenseman Ryan Suter will play in his 200th consecutive game. He leads the NHL in average time on ice (27:11). … Lightning forward Tyler Johnson has 13 points (four goals, nine assists) during an eight-game point streak.